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This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most significant ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Duke of York, with his arm around a teenage girl, while another individual grinned knowingly in the backdrop.

Absent that photograph, taken at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a young woman who declared she was moved across the ocean and obliged to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a individual of the royal family?

A curious, telling gesture by someone who had publicly asserted to have no heard of her, claimed he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of monarchical money to resolve a drawn-out lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Against this backdrop, talk of the royal family acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This scandal has continued for the majority of 15 years since that image, and another photo of Andrew ambling amiably with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Arrogance: For what duration did his family members, maybe even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his aides and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he unabashedly hosted them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Trips were listed in royal annual reports: chopper flights from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Then there was the arrogance which demanded respect when he walked into a space or the supreme obsession about his designations used on his official documents in messages to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still alive. The Queen did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, as revealed, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the issuance of accounts giving more troubling particulars of his conduct and that of his companions.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's belief that he could avoid being untruthful about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the media) were far ahead of the royals. There was nobody of any consequence to support him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute family members realized that. The key objective is to pass on the monarchy, if not as previously at least whole and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of earlier rulers, proving they are beneficial, responsible and reactive to their people.

He was placing all that in peril in an age when submission and privacy is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Ultimately, the notoriously indecisive sovereign was prodded additional. There was no alternative. The royal household had lost control of the account.

Presently the loss of honorifics and the persistent and life-long personal shame that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Reduced to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The initial member to forfeit his honorifics in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Notably painful given his role in the conflict

He is still a counsellor of state, in principle able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but none of these will actually happen.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he comes across still defer to him? Could they still slip up and call him Prince? Might they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the monarchy's large estate at Sandringham.

There, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some type of private allowance.

This differs from his previous residence, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the custody of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could parliament seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the waste of public money
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Perhaps for the time being the institutional damage to the monarchy is contained. The message from the palace was plainly that the removal of designations was what the king, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Altered Approach

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the short statement showed evidently that the institution were aligning with the complainant's version of incidents.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed regard for the survivors: "The measures are considered essential, notwithstanding the reality that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-interest and laziness that will destroy the crown. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that truth.